Changing Career Post Transition

Feeling unfulfilled and disengaged from your job and career is a sure sign that now is the time to move on. Recognising this is easy – taking the steps necessary to rediscovering yourself is the tricky part.

Imagine waking up each morning, knowing you have a job to go to that stimulates your interests and restores your passion for work. Few people take that leap of faith but there’s no reason why you can’t join them.
Engineering a career change or shift in role, post transition is perfectly possible providing you plan carefully and are prepared to put in the time and effort.

Steve Preston, author of Winning through Career Change, comments that a staggering number of employees say they feel unsatisfied in their job and/or feel they are in the wrong career. Some people are fortunate enough to land themselves in the perfect role and career at an early age; some make the fundamental steps to moving on as soon as any sense of doubt arises. Other employees have mustered the courage to change their professional lives as late as 65 years.
The key message is that you do not have to accept that feeling this unhappy and unfulfilled in your job is the way it has to be and it isn’t too late to change.

So, you want to make a career change, but you’re not sure where to start…

• Think about what it is that you want to do. Make the most of your true potential by deciding on a career that you think you’ll love, and then consider how best to achieve those great results – would you like to work with different kinds of people? Perhaps you like the idea of travelling. What would your ideal job entail on a day-to-day basis?

• The big question you need to ask yourself is whether you’re prepared to start from the bottom and retrain in something else entirely. Though you should never be afraid to take the plunge, it is worth considering the implications for you and your family if you have one to support. Lack of status and money can be disheartening but the whole point in changing your career is to take a long term view and focus on the reasons you opted to change in the first place. Success is a journey, not a destination after all.

• Lots of people have been in your position before, so to help you along the way, why not take a look at a variety of examples lived out by those very people. What route did they take? Plenty have quit their jobs to start up their own business and some have returned to work, starting afresh after a long career break.

• Adopt a different mindset and change your way of thinking entirely. To do this successfully, recognise your skills and capabilities; you can do almost anything if you put your mind to it so use them to your advantage – fantastic with organisational skills? Expert in research or client liaison? Acknowledging your transferable skills will set you off to a great start and have you selling them to potential employers in no time.

• Think carefully about your values because a detachment between your every day duties and what you believe in could cause you a feeling of uneasiness and dissatisfaction. Your needs and values are the foundation to build an authentic you. These become the key drivers and ‘must haves’ in your next job or career so if, for example, making a difference matters to you or status and importance overrule your list of concerns, then they deserve a fair amount of deliberation before making a decision.

• Will you regret it, if you don’t do it? “One of the best motivators for making your career change happen is thinking about what will happen if you don’t change?” says Steve Preston. The saying goes that you only regret what you didn’t do. Choosing to remain stuck in a job or career that does not fulfil you will only leave you feeling ever more frustrated and despondent, so revive your appetite for a working life that makes you happy and join the many courageous and committed individuals that have done just this.